John Nersesian is head of advisor education for PIMCO, providing advanced wealth management and investment consulting education to financial professionals. Previously, he was managing director of wealth management services for Nuveen Investments from 2000 to 2018. Prior to this, he was a first vice president at Merrill Lynch Private Client Group, where he was also a leader of advanced training for financial consultants. Mr. Nersesian served as a board member of the Investments & Wealth Institute from 2006–2017, and as chairman for the 2014–2015 term. He is a faculty member for the Certified Private Wealth Advisor® (CPWA®) and Certified Investment Management Analyst ® (CIMA®) education programs held at Yale University and The University of Chicago. He has 35 years of investment and financial services experience and earned a BS in business and economics from Lehigh University.
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Jeffrey Levine is the Lead Financial Planning Nerd for Kitces.com, and is also the President of Fully Vested Advice, Inc., which provides financial education and consulting services to industry professionals. Jeffrey is also the Director of Advanced Planning at Buckingham Wealth Partners and works closely with their team to create a seamless client experience that makes it easy to plan and instill confidence as they work towards their most important goals. He serves as a technical resource for advisors and the firm’s primary thought leader regarding evidence-based planning concepts and strategies. Buckingham allows him to train and educate hundreds of advisors and support them in their pursuit of helping clients fulfill their financial dreams.
He is a nationally-recognized and award-winning thought leader within the financial planning community.
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Steven Siegel is president of The Siegel Group, a Morristown, New Jersey-based national consulting firm specializing in tax consulting, estate planning, and advising family business owners and entrepreneurs. Siegel is the author of several books, including: The Grantor Trust Answer Book, CPA’s Guide to Financial and Estate Planning, and Federal Fiduciary Income Taxation. He presently serves as an adjunct professor of law in the graduate tax program of the University of Alabama and has served as an adjunct professor of law at Seton Hall and Rutgers University law schools. He earned a BS from Georgetown University, a JD from Harvard Law School, and an LLM in taxation from New York University.
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John F. Bergner, attorney, shareholder, Winstead PC, is a specialist in estate planning and probate law certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His practice involves complex tax, estate and business succession planning as well as administration of estates. Mr. Bergner has been with Winstead for more than 33 years and serves as chairman of the wealth preservation practice group. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, currently serving as a member of the Estate and Gift Tax committee. He earned a B.B.A. and J.D., Washburn University, and an M.L.T., Georgetown University Law Center.
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Elizabeth L. Morgan (formerly Elizabeth Morgan Schurig) represents a wide array of clients faced with multi-jurisdictional tax, estate, and business planning issues. She is experienced in the design of complex estate and business plans for U.S., non-U.S., and dual-citizen clients, and in assisting such clients with their pre-immigration and expatriation tax planning.
Elizabeth frequently advises clients on the resolution of international tax and treaty issues in connection with their estate and business planning and serves as outside counsel to several high net worth family offices.
She has formulated and administered estate and business plans for individuals and entities with ties to Australia, the Bahamas, Canada, the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey, China, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Dubai, France, Germany, India, the Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Oman, Panama, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
In addition to her expertise in the design, administration, and tax compliance of both inbound and outbound foreign trust and business structures, she has an extensive background in traditional probate, trust, and estate administration.
She is a contributing author (since 1995) and co-editor (since 2000) of the four-volume treatise, Asset Protection: Domestic and International Law and Tactics (Thomson/West Group, updated quarterly).
Samuel A. Donaldson is a professor of law at Georgia State University. Prior to joining GSU Law in 2012, Samuel was on the faculty at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle for 13 years. During his tenure at the University of Washington, he was a five-time recipient of the Philip A. Trautman Professor of the Year award from the School of Law’s Student Bar Association. He served for two years as Associate Dean for Academic Administration and for six years as the Director of the law school’s Graduate Program in Taxation.
Samuel teaches a number of tax and estate planning courses, as well as courses in the areas of property, commercial law and professional responsibility. He is a nationally recognized speaker on federal taxation and estate planning at professional conferences and continuing education seminars.
Samuel is an Academic Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) and a member of the Bar in Washington, Oregon, and Arizona. Among his scholarly works, he is a co-author of the popular West casebook, Federal Income Tax: A Contemporary Approach, and a co-author of the Price on Contemporary Estate Planning treatise published by Wolters Kluwer.
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